Apple announced Tuesday that next month is the last time the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo in San Francisco and that chief executive Steve Jobs will not be making a keynote presentation this year.

Philip Schiller, AppleÂs senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing,Â*will deliver the opening keynote for this yearÂs Macworld Conference & Expo, and itÂ*will be AppleÂs last keynote at the show.

The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San FranciscoÂs Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.

"Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers," the company said.Â*

"The increasing popularity of AppleÂs Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week,Â*and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways."

Apple hasÂ*been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

The startling news comes after a string of bad news for Macworld host IDG that has seen Adobe and Belkin withdraw from the show while other recognizable companies have opted to scale back their presences at the San Francisco event. Officially, these exhibitors have attributed their withdrawals or reduced presences to economic conditions.

Previously, Apple's exit from these events has effectively signaled their respective death knells.

After IDG announced a return of its East coast Macworld Expo to Boston from New York, Apple promptly canceled its own presence at the relocated event and refused to return even when IDG reversed its decision and moved the event back. The magazine publisher continued on with the New York gathering for 2004 and 2005 but was ultimately forced to shut it down as attendance dwindled and exhibitors rapidly backed out.

Without further elaboration from Apple, the twin decisions of exiting from Macworld and CEO Steve Jobs' absence from the stage is having a destructive effect on the Mac maker's shares as well: as of this writing, the company's stock is down more than 4.5 percent in after-hours trading.

for all i know, this could be a strategic move by apple...but perception matters...and the perception that this makes isnt good.

I have to agree. They can call it whatever they want, but to me it just looks bad. I remember when they pulled out of MWNY, and where is it now? My guess is that Macworld Expo will be no more come 2010, which is sad.

I remember a few years back, waking up early to watch the live stream with my roommate. And in recent years following the live play by play on websites. It was just a cool event. My guess is Apple doesn't have much of anything to talk about, or else Steve would be doing the farewell tour here and not Phil.

This is not a good economic time to be making such stock-weakening announcements. Ouch. Apple is already tanking in after-hours trading. I can already imagine all of the analysts crying wolf tomorrow. It might very well be a bad day for AAPL investors. Including me (sniff).

Actually, I think it is a good thing in the big picture (except for IDG?). The announcement moves the focus off of Steve Jobs as being the only person who can make (keep) the company successful. In the long run that will strengthen the company, the stock price. I smell buying opportunity, if I only had cash for such foolishnesss.

This makes sense, and it won't infringe on Apple's ability to launch its products through press events throughout the year. But it won't play like that -- it plays like Santa canceling Christmas, like the end of an era, like Steve Jobs being seriously unwell if he is unable to give the final Macworld keynote and finish what he started.

Now can you pass those "Expo" savings to your customers? How about scaling back the cost some of the products?

Apple is selling more computers than it ever has.
Apple continues to excel with the iPod / iTunes product line.

There is no "demand" to lower the prices. They only do when they want to increase their presence to a larger market. Apple wouldn't be Apple if the price wasn't different, as well. The extra cash they make allows them to do what they do.

Honestly, if you were in their shoes, how would you look at it? If you had a business with products in high demand, would you say "okay, we're lowering our prices to be nice". That's not a good reason.

MacWorld has always been a hugely expensive undertaking and as far as I'm concerned a waste of money. Of course, I will miss Steve Jobs doing his annual stage show but this is just a sign of the times. Look how many vendors pulled out due to the bad economy.

Conventions like these will someday be gone. It was fun while it lasted. I live in San Francisco and while it was always interesting to see the hordes of Apple fans walking around with their MW badges around their necks, I certainly won't miss the traffic headaches that came with it.

I have to agree. They can call it whatever they want, but to me it just looks bad. I remember when they pulled out of MWNY, and where is it now? My guess is that Macworld Expo will be no more come 2010, which is sad.

I remember a few years back, waking up early to watch the live stream with my roommate. And in recent years following the live play by play on websites. It was just a cool event. My guess is Apple doesn't have much of anything to talk about, or else Steve would be doing the farewell tour here and not Phil.

To be honest, i'm a bit bummed now...

Take heart. Kansasfest is still going strong fifteen years after the last Apple II ceased production.

This is not a good economic time to be making such stock-weakening announcements. Ouch. Apple is already tanking in after-hours trading. I can already imagine all of the analysts crying wolf tomorrow. It might very well be a bad day for AAPL investors. Including me (sniff).

Actually, I think it is a good thing in the big picture (except for IDG?). The announcement moves the focus off of Steve Jobs as being the only person who can make (keep) the company successful. In the long run that will strengthen the company, the stock price. I smell buying opportunity, if I only had cash for such foolishnesss.

It's likely tanking more because of the late, persistent anxiety about this being related to Jobs's health more than anything else.

The question is whether Apple would be doing this if the economy was good, and Adobe and others hadn't stepped out?

Apple is selling more computers than it ever has.
Apple continues to excel with the iPod / iTunes product line.

There is no "demand" to lower the prices. They only do when they want to increase their presence to a larger market. Apple wouldn't be Apple if the price wasn't different, as well. The extra cash they make allows them to do what they do.

Honestly, if you were in their shoes, how would you look at it? If you had a business with products in high demand, would you say "okay, we're lowering our prices to be nice". That's not a good reason.

Lower prices will increase the users switching to Mac. Look at how the Netbook has caused the PC market to grow...

Though Apple could be content to be premium but then those Vista attack ads make less and less sense...

If I remember correctly Phil Schiller did the last keynote speech at Paris Expo. Although I'm pretty sure he only did so because Steve was ill.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kupan787

I have to agree. They can call it whatever they want, but to me it just looks bad. I remember when they pulled out of MWNY, and where is it now? My guess is that Macworld Expo will be no more come 2010, which is sad.

I remember a few years back, waking up early to watch the live stream with my roommate. And in recent years following the live play by play on websites. It was just a cool event. My guess is Apple doesn't have much of anything to talk about, or else Steve would be doing the farewell tour here and not Phil.

MW always forced Apple to release some sort of hardware and/or software or it would be interpreted on the web as a big [Apple] failure. This way, Apple releases stuff on THEIR OWN terms, hyping it up themselves, and so if they don't measure up, it's them, not some forced event they feel obliged to release something at.

This is only good for Apple. Now they're not forced to come up with something every January. They can focus on getting its products out when they're ready instead of when the next big event comes up. Lately, Apple has been doing this more and more. They can hold a media even at the Apple Campus whenever they're ready to release a major product.

I agree though, it sucks not to see a Steve Jobs Keynote Address anymore. I've never been to one and I guess I never will.

It makes you wonder if there really is still a health issue with Steve Jobs? IMO, Steve has every right to keep his health to himself. Its his own personal business. Its not like Apple can't survive without him (no disrespect intended). He has put some very, very good people in place in key areas so Apple can survive without him.

I also think this is pretty much the end of the MacWorld Expo which sucks because it was more than just Apple. It was all Mac based vendors. It was a great way for the everyday Joe to learn about a new product for their Mac. Sure, Apple I believe kept the conference going (assuming this is the end), and got most of the attention, but it wasn't all about Apple. In a way, I would be kind of disappointed this opportunity is now gone. At the same time, I would totally understand why Apple left.

Pretty baffling move. The importance of trade shows may be diminishing, but I think Macworld SF is an exception.The last two years were very successful and gave Apple a huge amount of publicity. And since the event is so close to their HQ, it's not a big burden for them to attend. And for Jobs to skip out on Apple's last Macworld appearance ever is pretty weak.

Anyone notice, that the story before mentioned that the holiday "sales", price point reductions will be drying up quickly?
For the buying public, that's bad.
For the company, that's good.
Stop the spiral of deflation (Hopefully).

Also, get the "focus" on the products, and off of S. Jobs.
He cannot do it forever!

Apple's got to forge on using his visionary skills, not his presentational skills.
So, get the public off that tit before it gets too important, like it is to us old timers!

Lower prices will increase the users switching to Mac. Look at how the Netbook has caused the PC market to grow...

I'm a huge fan of netbooks, but the netbook isn't expanding the PC market in healthy ways. It is creating a market that destroys the market for more expensive devices; the total dollar sales could possibly shrink even if units do grow.

Apple creates an ecosystem of products that compliment each other. The key to Apple being successful with a netbook it to make something that compliments its desktop and laptop line effectively, so it creates an opportunity for a second or third sale rather than just offsetting a sale.

Unfortunately, this points much more towards an iPhone type device than a scaled down MacBook.

It is no surprising that Apple pulls out of MacWorld. However, why won't SJ give the last keynote?

1. SJ is indeed very ill.

or....

2. There will be something huge from Apple (Netbook? iPhone nano?), which will give Philip an opportunity to shine, and prove that Apple will be fine even if SJ is sick/retire.

Which one?

There will no doubt be a lot of speculation that #1 is the case. If anything you'd think Jobs would show up just to dispel this. For #2 that is a valid reason, but it would be more graceful for Steve to just do an intro then hand it off to Phil for all product announcements.

In a way it is sad. This is the last MWSF with Apple, where since Job's return the PowerMac G3 (Blue & White), Coloured iMacs, iMac (tilt screen), Titanium Powerbook G4, Mac OS X Aqua, iTunes and the first iPhone were unveiled. This event goes out over the world and all the major networks. When iPhone was announced it was on the BBC News. The “free“ publicity is surely valuable for Apple.

I would have preferred Bertrand Serlet and the team to talk about Snow Leopard and software for 2 hours rather than Phil Schiller, but I guess that wouldn't interest everyone. We'd probably all learn something interesting though.